Speak Easy

Turning Point's Peterborough Supported Living Services has
enhanced the positive impact of speech and language therapy by
helping the people we support to interview potential recruits to
the service.

Individuals who are able to make use of the therapy do so with
the aim of supporting the recruitment of new staff into the
service. People using the service join the interview panel
and are asked to consider what qualities they think are most
important in a staff member. Existing staff then help the
individual to prepare questions to assess these qualities, which
are asked at interview.

This provides effective motivation for those using speech and
language therapy, and helps to cement their progress by offering
the chance to take part in very different types of social
interaction. This also enables them to play a much greater part in
the community.

Philip Paterson, who was the first person to take part in the
scheme, has benefited hugely, and is now able to take part in many
more activities in the community, including going swimming on a
weekly basis.

Philip said of the initiative:

"I really enjoy helping the management here to interview
potential new staff. It's given me a reason to keep working at
speech therapy, and really helped me to get better at speaking to
other people in the community."

"Lifelong learning and personal development is, if anything,
even more important for those with learning disabilities than for
the general population. But it can be hard to find new
opportunities, and to find motivation, particularly for those who
may struggle to understand the benefits ahead of time, or who may
find it hard to assess their own skills and abilities.

"It gives us a valuable insight into how potential recruits are
likely to interact with people when working in the service. Having
trialled the method, we intend to use it whenever suitable in
future."